Time To Evolve Your Resolve: 10 Tips
2013 New Year Resolution Tips, Part 1
As 2012 nears its end, assuming it isn’t later today or the 20th (depending on which Mayan calendar you’re working from), expect a flood of magazines, op-eds, posts and tweets to call you to make resolutions for a better 2013 than your 2012. Your best year ever. To be the person you always have wanted to be. But it requires resolve. Clearly, you don’t want to be found slacking on such an important and critical task. Or do you?
Perhaps the very best magazine for providing high-level resources for delving into your new you is Success. I first learned about it from Dan Miller, of 48Days.com. Dan highly recommended it (thanks, Dan!), so I started up my subscription and haven’t stopped. What I most enjoy and appreciate about it is the enclosed bonus CD, because it contains lengthy interviews with some of the key contributors for that issue, or the primary people featured. It is an awesome value-add. So, if you need some additional insight for establishing your 2013 resolutions, you’d be hard-pressed to find anything better.
10 Tips for Resolution Evolution
However, before you resolve to go sailing off into the rarefied air of high-minded resolution making, here are a few bits of guidance.
- MAKE BIG GOALS: Perhaps you’ve heard of “BHAGs”–big, hairy audacious goals. Many goals aren’t reached because they weren’t compelling enough. A BHAG should make your heart flutter.
- WRITE THEM DOWN: Just write them down, will you? Until you write it down, it’s just an idea floating around. The simple of act of placing that idea on paper establishes it as serious to you.
- KEEP LOOKING AT THEM: So, when you write your BHAGs down, keep them in a journal, your day planner, on the notepad on your smart phone or a post-it note on your fridge. Refer to them at least once a week; daily is best.
- BELIEVE & COMMIT: If you are intentional about your written BHAGs–you really want to see them come into reality, knowing full-well that reaching them will mean you must stretch beyond anything you’ve done before–then your prospects are good! If your approach is more like, “Well, this would be cool if it happened but, you know, what are the odds of that…?,” you might as well close this window and go back to whatever you were doing earlier. Believe in yourself. Commit to setting a bunch of small personal bests throughout the year. They add up.
- EXPECT & ACCEPT: Here’s the trickiest challenge. You need to expect and accept some disappointments along the course of the year. Setbacks will come. And…you’ll also make progress! You’ll need to expect that outcome, and accept those moments, too. If you don’t, who will?
Just remember that virtually everyone that has succeeded in some area that you wish to grow into used the same steps that you will.
The other 5 steps tomorrow! Why not resolve to read them?
What’s been your experience with New Year resolutions? Inspiring? Frustrating?
Engage here.